Kathmandu, March 28

Nepal Weightlifting Association announced the Weightlifting and Fitness Training Academy and also felicitated the 12th South Asian Games medal winning lifters here on Monday.

The academy will be built on the lands of National Sports Council on the Nepalgunj Stadium premises and it will have a training and fitness hall which can also be used for tournaments, informed NWA president Ratan Kumar Tandan. The first and second floors will have 10-room and 12-room hostels with dining halls for women and men athletes respectively, while the third floor will have a library and a 50-person capacity study hall. “The estimated budget of the four-storey building is around $80,000,” said Tandan.

NWA general secretary Partha Sarathi Sen Gupta said the academy was the need of the time and training alone was not sufficient for the players. “Sports has entered the scientific era and we needed to move accordingly to get better results in international arena,” he added. The 12th SA Games medallists and national record holders were honoured with cash and certificates. Nepal had won four medals in Guwahati last month, a silver and three bronze medals.

Lifter Bikash Thapa was rewarded with Rs 10,000 for winning the silver and Rs 2,000 for setting new national record in the process, while bronze medallists Tara Devi Pun, Junu Maya Chhantyal and Devi Chaudhary received Rs 8,000 each. Former lifter Rukesh Tandukar handed over track suit each to the four medallists. The NWA also honoured other participants — Prakash KC, Anil Malla, Surendra Shrestha, Bhairav Singh Thapa, Gagan Singh Oli, Pukar Gurung, Manisha Ranabhat, Kamala Shrestha, Manita Shrestha and Laxmi Ban — with certificates, while Dinesh Shrestha also received Rs 2,000 for breaking national record in the regional games. President Tandan lauded the players’ performance in the regional games “despite having inadequate training”.

NWA also received equipment worth one billion rupees from ZKC Company of China. The equipment handover ceremony did not take place after Asian Weightlifting Federation general secretary Mohamed Hasan Jaloud could not make it because the plane he boarded on was diverted to India due to adverse weather conditions in Kathmandu. President Tandan said the equipment were meant for the Asian Championship. “We could not organise the tournament due to last year’s earthquake. Now we are bidding to hold the event in 2017,” he added. “The equipment, which will be handed over to the NWA later, will be used in training after the championship.”

Meanwhile, NWA distributed financial assistance to the players affected by the April 25 earthquake. Laxman Ranjit, Ram Kumar Shrestha, Muni Lama, Gyan Bahadur Shrestha, Gopal Bahadur Shrestha, Surendra Bahadur Shrestha, Raju Rana, Buddhi Lama, Anil Malla, Jeevan Tamang, Ramesh Pathak and Lippi Thapa received Rs 25,000 each. Japan Weightlifting Association had arranged the help for the Nepali lifters. President of Nepal Olympic Committee Jeevan Ram Shrestha handed over the amount to the players. Shrestha lauded NWA for coming up with the concept of establishing academy. “We have to target medals in upcoming tournament rather than being happy as a participant,” he said.